What is an RTW trip?

An RTW trip, meaning Round The World, is an extended trip (not the typical 1-2 week vacation), which circumnavigates the world, crossing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and stopping at 3-6 continents. This is not a fixed definition as there are many ways to make an RTW trip.

There is no right or wrong way to define an RTW trip. It can be a gap year, a sabbatical period or be associated with the concept of digital nomad. In our case this trip will represent a break in our professional life to feed our desire to travel and to know new cultures and places.

The tickets

Star Alliance, OneWorld and Skyteam sell RTW travel tickets that are complex tickets involving multiple destinations, dates, prices, flights and airlines. There are some rules to book an RTW ticket like starting and finishing in the same country, the number of miles traveled and the direction of travel. These combined tickets usually have more attractive prices than buying the trips separately.

However, this is not the only way to make an RTW and this will depend on how you want and like to travel: you can buy tickets separately, buy as you travel or combine with overland segments. AirTrecks specializes in RTW travel and can be a good starting point when you start thinking about your itinerary.

• How to buy the flights for your RTW?

The decision to do an RTW trip

Traveling around the world is a major decision so whatever your reasons may be, you must make the most of it. It can be a once-in-a-lifetime experience and it will surely help you grow as a person and as a citizen of the world.

This is the first post of our planning an RTW trip series. If you want to read more about planning a round the world trip check the rest of the series.